Spacing grid
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A plant spacing calculator built for growers. Enter your beds and spacing, and get rows, plants per row, holes to burn, and a fabric roll list sized by linear feet, not square feet. Print the plan or share it with your crew.
Free, no sign-up · Feet or metric · Printable plan and burn template
One card per bed shape. Use the count for identical beds. Pick a crop to load a typical spacing, then adjust for your variety.
Fabric is bought by the linear foot of roll, not by area. Each bed is a run of roll width; a bed wider than the roll takes another pass with a seam.
3.2oz woven weed barrier. Built for planting beds under mulch, straw, or bare ground: burn holes, plant through, pin the edges.
Bed 1: cover 6 ft wide on a 3 ft roll = 3 passes with 6 in overlap; each run 51 ft x 1 run = 153 ft.
Cut total 153 ft + 10% waste = 168.3 ft. Roll length 300 ft, so 1 roll (300 ft supplied, 131.7 ft left over).
Area shortcut, for contrast: 200 sq ft of beds divided by 900 sq ft per roll = 0.22 rolls. It ignores passes, overlap, anchoring, and offcuts.
Need drainage under the beds or a French drain alongside? That is a different fabric: see TERRA non-woven geotextile or take the Fabric Finder.
A printable jig for Bed 1. Burn holes with a propane torch or a hole burner through the jig; the melted edge seals the weave so it will not fray.
Every square is one foot. Paint beds, paths, patios and drains, and each surface carries the DOTDAY fabric that ground condition calls for. Beds show their real hole layout, so what you see is the burn template.
24 × 16 ft384 one-square-foot cells · 7 zones
Drag to paint planting bed. Right-click clears a square.
| Product | Roll | Qty | Each | Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SHIELDSHIELD 3.2oz woven | 3 ft × 300 ftWB32SNZ3X300 | 1 | $84.49 | $84.49 |
| XBARXBAR 5oz dual-layer woven | 3 ft × 250 ftWB05SNZ3X250 | 1 | $114.99 | $114.99 |
| TERRATERRA 4oz non-woven needle-punched geotextile | 3 ft × 50 ftGT04SNZZ3X50 | 1 | $69.99 | $69.99 |
| Estimate before shipping and tax | $269.47 | |||
Bed A · Dahlias
12 × 4 ft bed · 3 rows on 18 in · 12 per row on 12 in
36 holes · first hole 6 in from the edge, 6 in from the end · SHIELD strip 6 ft × 13 ft
Bed B · Zinnias
12 × 4 ft bed · 5 rows on 9 in staggered · 15 per row on 9 in
73 holes · first hole 6 in from the edge, 6 in from the end · SHIELD strip 6 ft × 13 ft
Berry bed · Strawberries
8 × 8 ft bed · 8 rows on 12 in · 8 per row on 12 in
64 holes · first hole 6 in from the edge, 6 in from the end · SHIELD strip 10 ft × 9 ft
Bed C · Snapdragons
12 × 4 ft bed · 7 rows on 6 in · 23 per row on 6 in
161 holes · first hole 6 in from the edge, 6 in from the end · SHIELD strip 6 ft × 13 ft
Plants sit at points, not in areas. A row with spacing s over a usable length L holds floor(L / s) + 1 plants: one at the start, then one every s. Rows across the bed follow the same rule. Area math forgets the first plant in every row and every bed. One burned hole per plant, so the plant count is also the holes count you hand to whoever runs the torch.
Usable width is the bed width minus an edge margin on each side. Rows = floor(usable width / row spacing) + 1. A 4 ft bed with 6 in margins at 9 in spacing holds 5 rows, not 4.
Usable length is the bed length minus an end margin at each end. Plants per row = floor(usable length / plant spacing) + 1. Fifty feet at 9 in gives 66 plants, not 65.
Offsetting alternate rows lets the row pitch tighten to 0.866 x spacing (an equilateral triangle). Every second row starts half a space in and holds one plant fewer.
The default plan in the calculator. Margins 6 in at the edges and ends, no stagger.
The gap-counting shortcut is the one most spreadsheets make. It drops one row and one plant per row in every bed, and the error grows with the number of beds.
Single-stem sunflowers, stock, snapdragons, tulips, ranunculus and anemones on tight pitch. Dense canopy, high stem count per bed, more holes to burn.
The cut-flower workhorse: zinnias, cosmos, celosia, strawflower, gomphrena, scabiosa, marigold. A good default when you are unsure.
Branching plants that want room: amaranth, statice, rudbeckia, yarrow, phlox, most vegetables. Dahlias run 12 in the row at 18 in between rows.
Nursery stock, lavender, roses, peonies. Fewer plants, larger holes, and a longer life for the fabric between replantings.
Fewer weeds. Cleaner rows. Less labor.
What the numbers become once the fabric is down
Choose by what the fabric sits under, not by weight alone.
Not sure? The Fabric Finder asks one question about what goes on top and points you to SHIELD, XBAR, or TERRA.
| Bed length | 6 x 6 in | 9 x 9 in | 12 x 12 in | 18 x 18 in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 ft | 343 | 165 | 100 | 51 |
| 50 ft | 693 | 330 | 200 | 99 |
| 75 ft | 1,043 | 495 | 300 | 150 |
| 100 ft | 1,393 | 665 | 400 | 201 |
| 150 ft | 2,093 | 995 | 600 | 300 |
| 200 ft | 2,793 | 1,330 | 800 | 399 |
| 300 ft | 4,193 | 1,995 | 1,200 | 600 |
A torch or hole burner melts the edge of the weave so the hole cannot run. Cut holes fray and widen over a season, and weeds follow the gap.
Lay drip tape or line along each row before the fabric. Burned holes then land over the emitters, and the fabric keeps the tape shaded and in place.
Pin at the edges and down both sides of each seam. A 12 in allowance past the bed gives the pins something to hold, which is why the calculator adds it.
Subtract the edge margin from each side of the bed width, divide by the row spacing, round down, and add one for the rows. Do the same with the bed length, the end margin, and the plant spacing for plants per row. Multiply the two. The calculator above does this per bed and sums every bed in the plan.
Because plants sit at points. A 588 in usable length at 9 in spacing has 65 gaps but 66 plants: one at the start, then one after every gap. Skip the plus one and a four-bed plan comes up 280 plants short.
Typical intensive spacing is 9 x 9 in for zinnias, 12 in in the row by 18 in between rows for dahlias, and 6 x 6 in for single-stem sunflowers. Pick the crop in the calculator to load a starting grid, then adjust for your variety and climate.
Staggering fits about 13% more rows across the same bed width by tightening the row pitch to 0.866 x spacing. It suits crops that want airflow on all sides. The trade is a slightly more awkward burn pattern, which the template handles.
Size it by linear feet of roll, not square feet. Each bed is a run of roll width, plus an end allowance; a bed wider than the roll takes extra passes with a 6 in overlap. The roll list in the calculator shows rolls, seams, and offcut for every size DOTDAY sells, using current list prices.
SHIELD 3.2oz woven for beds under mulch, straw, or bare ground. XBAR 5oz dual-layer woven when the same sheet runs across walked paths or gravel lanes between beds. TERRA is a non-woven drainage geotextile and is not a weed barrier.
Use a propane torch with a hole-burning tip or a purpose-made hole burner, over a plywood or cardboard jig cut to your grid. Work in dry conditions with water nearby. The melted edge seals the weave so it will not fray. Print the burn template at 100% and check the 6 in bar with a tape before cutting the jig.
Yes. Copy shareable link puts the whole plan in the URL, so anyone who opens it sees the same beds and fabric. Print or save the plan produces a one-page summary with a beds table, totals, and the roll order.
Farms, nurseries, and landscape crews get volume pricing on SHIELD and XBAR. Share your plan link with the request and we will price the roll list for you.